The invention relates to a forward tiltable motor vehicle seat with a seat carrier and with a seat back, a hinge mounting being associated with the seat back and having a) an upper hinge arm connected to the seat back, b) a lower hinge arm hinged to the seat carrier about a forward tilt axis and c) comprising a locking device on one seat side only, the other seat side being connected to the lockable seat side by a shaft.
A such type motor vehicle seat has been known from DE 10 2006 028 899 A1. In particular for motor vehicles having only one door on each vehicle side and also having rear seats, motor vehicle seats that can be readily displaced forward are needed for ease of access to the rear seats. The prior art motor vehicle seat can be tilted forward about the forward tilt axis; the seat back can be actuated quickly. The incline of the seat back is adjusted by the hinge mounting within a range of adjustment. In all there are thus provided two pivot axes for the seat back.
The problem of this construction is that the two seat sides exhibit different stability characteristics. On the locked seat side, the seat back takes quite high loads, the other side, which is retained only passively, cannot absorb so high loads. It may also cause the seat back to twist. Loads occur in particular if there is a load behind the motor vehicle seat of concern, for example a heavy parcel of a larger size or a passenger may be seated there.
This problem occurs in particular when the seat back is in the tilted forward condition, when quite large and heavy items are being placed behind the motor vehicle seat of concern. Additionally, the seat back has an incline so that, when yielding, the body stowed behind the seat back can slip upward. In normal driving, the different stiffness of the two sides is not noticeable, but it becomes so in the event of an accident.
Accordingly, it is the object of the invention to develop the motor vehicle seat locked on one side of the type mentioned herein above in such a manner that, on the seat side that has not been locked, the seat back also has sufficient strength, at least in crash events and/or at least in the forward tilted condition of the seat back.